Making Sense of the Chaos In Your Life

“For your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”  Matthew 6:8(NLT)

by Alexandra Copeland

As an adolescent, I was reared in the church and had considered myself a Christian because most of the people in my family and community were Christians; I figured I was one by default. Struggling with most of the pressures and problems that many teenagers encounter, I found myself very depressed and constantly in a state of nervousness and anxiety. My home life was tough, I had no one with whom I felt I could confide, and I was really at a point where I felt I couldn’t take it another day. I flipped on the TV, and it just so happened that the ‘Ten Commandments’ was on the channel that night. When I saw Moses come off that mountain with the glory of the Lord upon his face, something within me flipped. I fell to my knees and prayed to the Lord to change my life and to accept me as His child.

I remember it like it was yesterday. From that moment on, things were different. I still had some of the same problems, but I began to operate and walk by faith. I would tell the Lord, “This is too big for me. I can’t handle it. Please take this burden from me.” He always did, over and over again. My catalog of faith began to build, and depression and sadness dissipated as I grew in God’s Word.

I always tell people that Heavenly Father really spoiled me during those early years of spiritual development. He lavished me with His love and care just as a mother does with her first born, but there will come a time when the spiritual tools that we’ve become so accustomed to will no longer work with the expediency that they once did. Prayers are not answered in the ways we expect, and it almost feels like God isn’t hearing us. If you are serious about Jesus Christ, and your relationship with God is your first priority, you need to know that you will hit this ceiling, and it can be the most challenging time of your life.

Things go haywire, with one fire to put out after another. This is a time of unprecedented challenge for you, and you might think you are without the armor you need. A period like this is really a marker, carving within your brain cells and heart a memory that will never be forgotten. It’s the thing that signifies your graduation from one stage of spiritual development to the next. Some people call it a test, and indeed it is, but we cannot be tricked when it comes to exactly who is doing the testing. James 1:13(NKJV) tells us, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”

God knows us through and through. He knows even the number of hairs on our heads. He knows exactly what we’re going to do before we do it. Jesus Christ told us in Matthew 6:8(NLT), “For your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” There is never a necessity for God to test us, because He knows exactly what we’re made of. The enemy, on the other hand, will test our stand upon God’s Word, and he will do it when we least expect it.

The enemy will study our vulnerabilities and watch for the most opportune time to attack us. And yes, God allows those attacks. Heavenly Father has given us the armor of His Word, the example of Jesus Christ, and the indwelling Holy Spirit. These three have empowered us to such a degree that no weapon formed against us will prosper, because we are more than conquerors through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! (Isa 54:17, Rom 8:37) God knows this, but sometimes we don’t completely believe it, and we have to get to a point in our walk where we not only believe it, but we’re activated to move mightily in our calls.

We have to graduate from the point of seeking God because of all the goodies He bestows upon us, to seeking Him because He is God Almighty and we love Him. Our trust in Him and our love for Him must be sure. In many respects relationships with our biological parents is like this. Growing up, we sometimes see our mothers and fathers as suppliers of all that we need, but ultimately we will grow into adults who will no longer be dependent upon them, but on ourselves. We must learn to believe and trust God by using our own thoughts, words, and deeds to be obedient to His Word. We will have to rely on God autonomously and internally as we employ the resources of our thoughts, will, and confessions. We will need to draw from the relationships and abilities we’ve cultivated through Christ. All of this will help us sustain and carve out a meaningful existence. We have to rise up in our believing to recognize that God has empowered us individually through Christ to operate by Kingdom principles and be victorious!

God is a Rewarder to those that diligently seek Him. He tells us this in Hebrews 11:6. We cannot have a life without leaning upon His goodness and receiving His rewards; but there will come a time in our spiritual walks in Christ where we cannot be motivated by what we seek to gain, but by what we seek to give. Just as we have learned to believe for a new car, a new job, and a wonderful spouse, we’re going to have to apply that same believing and faith to seeking God for greater spiritual strength as we carry forth the thing for which we’ve been called to do.

As we press our way into the realization of this elevated stage of spiritual development, opposition will most assuredly come. We are children of the light. We are more than conquerors through Christ, and our mission is to glorify God within this earthly realm. Jesus Christ said in John 17:4 (NLT), “I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” The finished works of Christ glorified God! We are the brothers and sisters of Christ. We're his ambassadors, joint heirs of his inheritance. He finished that which God called him to do, and is now seated at His Father’s right hand. We are here upon this earth to carry forth what Jesus Christ began. His work was to glorify God, and to also destroy the works of the devil, as it tells us in 1John 3:8. This is our work as well.

We would do well to remember that the work of the Kingdom glorifies God; and the works of sin, darkness, and strife glorify the enemy. This is why he, the enemy, tries so hard to pull us away from our work in Christ; he tries to get us to remove our focus from God and put it on the fires that are popping up all around us. This is how the enemy receives glory; by getting us to talk about and spread news of his tyranny, rather than heralding and manifesting the goodness of God. The things of the enemy are distractions, designed to keep us from zoning in on our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Chaos is exactly that; it’s chaotic, and until our Lord returns to reign in the earth, it is going to exist. It isn’t necessary for us to make sense of it. Our mission is to bring light into darkness, and to do it with a persistent faith to continue to grow in Christ and advance his ministry in the earth.■

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.